iGyaan Network

Author: Souradeep Roy

  • Samsung Might Have Accidentally Leaked The Galaxy S10 Design, Launching 20th Feb

    Samsung Might Have Accidentally Leaked The Galaxy S10 Design, Launching 20th Feb

    Samsung in a press release, may have leaked the design of their upcoming smartphone – the Samsung Galaxy S10. The press release was about Samsung’s new user interface called One UI that is at it’s beta phase at the moment. The One UI is a radically different designed UI compared to the older UI that Samsung used. One UI has enhanced features such as ease of one handed use, minimalistic design eliminating unnecessary distractions and a night mode.  

    Galaxy S10 

    Coming back to the phone, Samsung will be releasing their flagship Galaxy S10 this year and the rumour mills suggest that it will have an under display camera at the front. If rumours are anything to go by, there will be two variations of the phone this year. A Lite version with a smaller screen and a bigger screen version. The bigger S10 will feature a pinhole for the camera instead of a notch.

    The photo, which was taken down after a Reddit user pointed out the mistake, shows an in display camera at the top right which looks to be Samsung’s Infinity – O patent coming to life. The phone also had a very thin chin and looks almost all screen. The pictures also showed buttons on the side with the power button to the right and the volume rocker and Bixby button on the left. However, these are all assumptions at this point, the actual design shouldn’t be too far off we feel. 

    Keeping the photo aside, there are also rumours that the phone may feature an in- display fingerprint sensor. Other rumours for the flagship phones include Snapdragon 855 chipset, 8GB/12GB RAM and 12MP, 16MP and 13MP rear cameras. The launch date for the S10 has been announced by the company to be February 20th, 2019 which is just a few days before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

  • Panasonic Lumix S1, Lumix S1R Mirrorless Cameras To Go On Sale Soon

    Panasonic Lumix S1, Lumix S1R Mirrorless Cameras To Go On Sale Soon

    The entire photography industry slowly moving towards mirrorless cameras. More manufacturers are focusing more on their mirrorless lineup than ever before. Panasonic being on the forefront of mirrorless camera technology, along with brands like Fujifilm, Olympus, Pentax and Leica, has a great lineup of cameras. The company had announced the Lumix S1 and Lumix S1R mirrorless cameras in Photokina 2018 equipped with a Leica L mount lenses.

     

    Camera Specifications

    Now, at CES 2019, Panasonic has revealed that both the cameras will be available for purchase from end of March of this year. The LUMIX S1R will feature a 47MP sensor. Whereas, the LUMIX S1 will feature a 24MP sensor. Panasonic had also claimed that these cameras will be the world’s first full frame digital single lens mirrorless cameras to feature support for 4K 60p/50p video recording. The company also claims to be the world’s first full-frame camera to be equipped with Dual I.S. system. Panasonic had also announced an update for the Lumix S series cameras. This update will add key features one of which is the HLG photo mode. According to Panasonic, the HLG Photo allows images to be shot with a wider dynamic range. It also increases the precision of the colour accuracy to portrait colours.

    The other update will be a high-resolution mode that combines 8 consecutively shot images into a single high-res image. This will benefit photographers who require large prints such as fashion and commercial photographers.

    Panasonic has also promised that they will also expand its lineup of LUMIX S series compatible lenses. They will develop more than ten lenses by the year 2020. These will include 50 mm/ F1.4 single focal length lens, 24-105 mm standard zoom lens, and 70-200 mm telephoto zoom lens among others. These new lenses will give photographers a variety of focal lengths to choose from. Both cameras will have support for  dual card slots for XQD as well as SD cards.

    Availability And Price

    The prices of the two cameras will be on the higher side, given that Leica is also involved in the project. The exact prices however have not been announced yet.

  • DJI Announces A $650 Smart Controller At CES

    DJI Announces A $650 Smart Controller At CES

    DJI has been making new and innovative products in the drone and videography business for a long time now. This year, at CES they showcased a smart controller with a screen that can see what your drone sees, in realtime! 

    Features

    The controller supports its Mavic 2 Zoom and Mavic 2 Pro drones and it features a screen with which you can see the visuals captured by the drone in realtime. The said screen is a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen that runs Android. DJI knows the problems that drone pilots face and thus, has included features to prevent those issues. It has protection from harsh temperatures ranging from -20 degrees Celsius to 40 degrees Celsius which allows the pilot to fly drones in extreme temperatures. The smart controller also has a bright 1,000 cd/m2 screen thus allowing for a clear viewing experience even in harsh and direct sunlight. 

    It has Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, and DJI’s own OcuSync 2.0 video transmission technology. This technology for video transmission automatically switches between 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz to reduce interference. This allows the pilot assurance of a reliable long-range transmission. The Android loaded on the controller is a customised version with apps for sharing and editing. This includes DJI’s own Go Share app as well. 

    Additionally, it has a microphone and a speaker if anyone wishes to livestream the drone flight as well! If you want to playback your video directly on a bigger screen in 4K you can do that using the HDMI port on the controller. The in- built storage on it however, is just 16GB. The controller does however support a maximum of 128GB UHS-1 Speed Grade 3 card. Even at lower temperatures, the 5,000mAh battery with support for fast charging ensures that the controller lasts long enough for a flight. It can be fully charged in just 2 hours using a 12V/2A adapter and it lasts up to 2.5 hours on a single full charge. 

    The controller is priced at a hefty $650 and is available on the company’s website. 

  • Bose Introduces Noise Cancellation For Cars

    Bose Introduces Noise Cancellation For Cars

    Bose has been in the forefront of noise cancellation technology for a long time now and it seems the company is making strides into in- car noise cancellation as well. This technology will keep the sound of the car engine and other peripheral sound away from the passengers sitting inside. While some of might love the growling engine and exhaust of our cars, some do prefer a quieter journey, specially for long distances. 

    The new technology is called QuietComfort Road Noise Control. Bose is known worldwide for their excellent noise cancellation headphones also, aptly named QuietComfort series. This technology uses your vehicle’s audio system, accelerometers, microphones, and Bose’s own signal-processing software. While cars, up until now provided noise reduction, by increasing the insulation and use of specialised tires, the QuietComfort Road Noise Control works differently. 

    How It Works

    Bose headphones continuously measure, compare, and react to outside noise, then cancel it with the opposite signal. The car’s noise cancellation system works in a similar fashion. It uses an algorithm that counteracts noise produced by the body of the car with equal and opposing sound waves. These sound waves are transmitted through the car’s speakers. The technology also makes use of small microphones inside the cabin to generate the precise noise reduction signal that is required. 

    This technology will provide a quieter in- car environment. This will allow the passengers and the driver a chance to enjoy their music, calls or conversation without any disturbance. This technology is aimed towards the future, according to Bose, because it will substantially reduce noticeable road noise from electric propulsion and lighter cars. The technology will theoretically also help the car become lighter because noise insulation will not be required in cars anymore. 

    Bose has been pioneering the noise reduction technology and has several patents to its name. It will be interesting to see how the company changes in- car noise reduction as we know it. 

  • Lexar Announces World’s First 1 TB SD XC Card

    Lexar Announces World’s First 1 TB SD XC Card

    Back in 2016, SanDisk had unveiled the world’s first 1 TB SD card, but unfortunately it never made it to the market. However, Lexar, a brand that was bought by Longsys two years back, has now released a 1 TB SD card that is available for purchase! It is noteworthy that the Lexar brand was shutting shop when Micron, the then parent company decided to discontinue the brand.

    Specifications

    The card promises to transfer high-quality photos and 1080p full-HD, 3D, and 4K video extremely fast. It promises to deliver read speeds of up to 633x (95MB/s). The card has a video recording speed class of V30. The main competition to this card will be Sand Disk’s 512 Extreme Pro SDHC/SDXC UHS-I memory card. 

    A senior official from Lexar stated that almost fifteen years ago Lexar had announced a 1GB SD card. And now the company has achieved to have a 1 TB storage capacity in the same convenient form factor. He also stated that as consumers continue to demand greater storage for their cameras, the combination of high-speed performance with a 1TB option now offers a solution for content creators. Specially those who shoot large volumes of high-resolution images and 4K video. 

    According to the company, all Lexar product designs undergo extensive testing in the Lexar Quality Labs. This occurs in facilities with more than 1,100 digital devices. This is done to ensure performance, quality, compatibility, and reliability.

    This card however, being a pathfinder of sorts, is quite expensive. The 1TB Lexar Professional 633x SDXC UHS-I card is available at an MRP of $499.99. Buying two 512 GB SD cards are still cheaper, but it might mean taking a cut in between recording footage  to change cards if you frequently record 4K videos.  The new 1 TB card also comes with a limited-lifetime warranty. 

  • PUBG Mobile India Series Announced With A Prize Pool Of 1 Crore

    PUBG Mobile India Series Announced With A Prize Pool Of 1 Crore

    PUBG has a huge fan base in India and the game has grown even bigger since the arrival of the game on the mobile platform. Now, Playerunknown’s Battleground has announced a tournament for all the mobile PUBG players in India. The competition has a prize pool of 1 Crore Indian rupees.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29R3udhlIYw&feature=youtu.be

    How To Register?

    The registrations will be open till 23 January. All you need to do is verify your email id after you click on “Register Now” button. Once you have verified your email, you will need to fill up a registration form. After that you can choose to join or create a squad of a minimum of 4 members. You can join a squad using the squad ID or you can use the “Create Squad” button to create one on your own. 

    Schedule

    The schedule for the tournament are as follows: 

    Registration 9 January – 23 January
    Online In-Game Qualifier 21 January – 27 January
    Online Playoff’s 10 February – 24 February
    Grand Finals March – Exact Dates TBD

     

    Every participant who decides to participate in this tournament must be an Indian resident and have their own devices. PUBG has also said that during the In-game Qualifier and Online Playoffs, the players are expected to use their own devices without any emulators, hacks and any other 3rd party software/tool. For the Grand Finals, devices will be provided to the players by the organisers. Tencent Games has also said in the tournament page that all players must install the newest version of the game in order to participate in PUBGM India Series. 

    Seeding

    In Round 1, the Top 2000 Squads are seeded into 100 groups with each group consisting of 20 squads. For Round 2, the top 400 squads from Round 1 will be seeded into 20 groups again, with each group consisting of 20 squads. In Round 3, the top 80 squads from Round 2 will be seeded into 4 groups, each consisting 20 squads. 

    Also Read: PUBG Mobile: Tips And Tricks To Become An Ace Player

    The server region for the tournament is Asia and the camera mode is TPP- Third person. You can read more about the rules of the tournament in full HERE. 

     

  • Xiaomi Launches Redmi Note 7 With 48 MP Camera

    Xiaomi Launches Redmi Note 7 With 48 MP Camera

    Xiaomi has launched the much rumored 48 Megapixel camera smartphone, the Redmi Note 7. But to everyone’s surprise, The Redmi Note 7 isn’t a high end phone that one expects from just the camera specifications. In fact, it is a lower range phone that, when converted from Chinese currency, just costs Rs 10,000 for the base model.

    This is the first phone to be released after Xiaomi announced that the company is turning Redmi into a separate brand. The back of the phone sports a logo at the bottom that reads “Redmi by Xiaomi”.

    Features And Specifications

    The phone’s main attraction is the camera which stands at a whopping  48 million tiny 0.8-micron pixel resolution. The Redmi Note 7 features a 6.3-inch FHD+ display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a 2.5D curved glass. The camera set-up at the back is a vertical one with dual camera lenses. The secondary camera is a secondary camera is a 5-megapixel shooter. Talking about the front camera, it has a 13-megapixel sensor with AI. The heart of the phone beats on a Snapdragon 660 processor with an Adreno 512 GPU. It also sports a 4000 mAh battery. Other useful features include a USB Type-C port, 3.5mm headphone jack, VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

    With this phone, Redmi joins an elite group of phones to sport a 40 Megapixel and above shooter. Huawei is also set to launch a premium View20 smartphone in India soon with a 48-megapixel camera. The recent trend in higher megapixel cameras began with Sony developing a new sensor for phones. The Redmi Note 7 likewise features a Sony IMX 586 sensor as well. 

    The starting price of the Redmi Note 7 is 999 Yuan or Rs. 10,000 for the 3GB RAM and 32GB storage variant and it goes all the way upto 1,399 yuan or Rs. 14,500 for 6GB and 64GB variant. The phone is available only in China at the moment with colour options of red, blue and black. The phone however, should make it’s way to India soon but no specific dates have been announced as of now. 

     

  • Alienware Area- 51m, An Upgradable Gaming Laptop

    Alienware Area- 51m, An Upgradable Gaming Laptop

    Imagine a powerful desktop computer, but portable.  It sounds like a gamer’s dream. Well, not anymore since Alienware has done just that. The new Area- 51m is a completely customisable laptop. It was launched at CES 2019 by Dell and is going to change how gaming laptops have been seen so far. 

    Up until now, gaming laptops have concentrated on becoming smaller in size while providing top of the line specifications. But that has meant that while a customer buys the laptop, it supports all contemporary games but the specifications become obsolete as years go by. Games these days have become extremely demanding in terms of system specifications and this means that most gaming laptops stop supporting high end games in just a few years’ time. But the Aleinware Area- 51 can replace both the CPU and the GPU so that a gamer does not have to upgrade to a whole new laptop every few years.

     

    Specifications

    The laptop will sport a ninth-gen Intel CPU and 20-series overclockable Nvidia GPU. This will be the first time that an Alienware laptop will support eight-core processors, 2.5Gbit Ethernet and 64GB of RAM.

    The laptop will be available in various CPU and GPU configurations. The CPU options include Intel’s 9th Gen i7-8700, i7-9700K or i9-9900K. GPU options of the laptop are Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, GeForce RTX 2070 or GeForce RTX 2080. The RAM options for the laptop range from 8GB to 64GB DDR4 RAM with single, dual and triple storage options, from 256GB to 3TB. The screen of the laptop is a 17 inch screen with 144Hz G- Sync display. It also has a 10/100/1000/2.5 Gbps RJ-45 Ethernet with Killer Wireless 1550 2×2 AC and Bluetooth 5.0. The laptop is in no way light and weighs in at 8.5 pounds. Some of the weight is due to the body being made from a magnesium alloy. It will be available in either white or matte black.

    The cooling system used is called Cryo-Tech 2.0, which covers the dual-intake, dual-exhaust airflow design, copper fin stacks, heat pipes and high-voltage fans. It also has hexagonal shaped vents for cooling both under and at the back of the laptop. 

    The lowest specced laptop starts at just around $2,000 and should be available on Jan 21st, 2019. 

     

  • Honor View 20 Coming To India January 29th

    Honor View 20 Coming To India January 29th

    The Honor View 10 was launched in India back in December 2017. In December of 2018, they showcased the View 20, which was a power-packed phone with high end specifications. But is still not available in India. However, the company has set a launch date for India as well as for Europe. The phone will be launched in Paris, France on 22nd January and India will see it’s launch on 29th January.

    Features

    The phone features a 6.4 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen. It has a display resolution of 1080 x 2310 pixels. The Honor View 20 also features an in- display camera hole in the front. The phone is powered by HiSilicon Kirin 980 chipset with an Octa-core CPU and a Mali-G76 MP10 GPU. The phone is available in a few RAM and storage combinations. These include 256 GB with 8 GB RAM or 128 GB with 6/8 GB RAM. 

    The main USP of the phone however is the cameras. On the back the phone features a 48 MP, f/1.8 sensor and shoots videos at 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps and slow motion videos at 720p@960fps.

    Front camera wise, the phone features a 25 MP, f/2.0 sensor and can shoot videos at 1080p@30fps. The Honor View 20 also has a whopping 4000 mAh battery. 

    Pricing for India is not known yet. However, we may find the company undercut the OnePlus 6T’s pricing to get an advantage on the sales. 

  • PUBG Mobile To Add Zombies, Rickshaw And MK47 Mutant Weapon

    PUBG Mobile To Add Zombies, Rickshaw And MK47 Mutant Weapon

    PUBG or PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds is one of the runaway success stories in gaming. The game is played by millions across the world and each and every small update means a lot to gamers. PUBG’s mobile version is a scaled down version of the PC game which is also a hit with teenagers and adults alike. It is a map where players are pitted against one another and the last man or team standing emerges victorious. In the latest update news, the game is going to add new features to the already excellent game to enhance the gaming experience. These include Zombies, Rickshaw and an MK47 weapon. 

    The game recently saw the release of a new Snow map called Vikendi which was extremely well received. Now, the game will push for another update with these major changes. The Zombie Mode will have a team of players to fight 98 zombies, according to some reports. The game developer had teased a crossover between Resident Evil 2 and PUBG at the PUBG Mobile Star Challenge in 2018. This has led to further speculations of the zombie mode finally seeing the light of day. 

    According to a few YouTube channels, the upcoming January update will include these changes: 

    PUBG Mobile January update

    1. Tukshai (Rickshaw) for Sanhok map
    2. New snow area in Erangel map
    3. New death cam feature to show you a replay of how you died
    4. Zombies Mode
    5. MK 47 Mutant rifle
    6. Laser sight for weapons
    7. Snow bike for Vikendi
    8. New dance emotes
    9. Classic Voices will return
    10. PUBG Vikendi map will be removed from beta


    Some of the other speculated updates include new weather conditions including rain and snow covered areas in a map which will reduce visibility thus increasing the game’s difficulty. The new gun called the MK 47 mutant is supposedly going to be an assault rifle. It will use 7.62mm ammunition and offer single and burst fire modes. Moreover, it will have a 20 round magazine.

    There are also speculations regarding a new laser sight which takes up a slot on the lower rail of the gun. It will increase gun firing accuracy when moving around too much, for example shooting from a car or in a run and gun situation. However, it has a very short range and is only visible to the user. As to the date of the update, there is no news as of now, but it will be interesting to see how the gameplay and strategies change based on the new items, weather conditions and vehicles that are to be introduced. 

  • Chinese Rover Shares First Photo Of The Far Side Of The Moon

    Chinese Rover Shares First Photo Of The Far Side Of The Moon

    China has sent two robots to the moon! The term ‘Over the moon’ has a new meaning now because no human has ever been to the far side. Despite several pop culture references, it isn’t actually dark. And we know that because the rovers are now sending us images!

    What is Far Side Of The Moon?

    For the uninitiated, we only see one side of the moon from earth. This side is called the near side. This is because the moon takes roughly the same time to orbit the Earth as it takes to spin around it’s axis. It is the first time that a rocket has landed on the far side as well. However, it isn’t the first time that the far side has been photographed. Luna 3, a Soviet spacecraft did photograph the far side of the Moon in 1959.  Sometimes the far side is referred to as the dark side because we know very little about that area, hence the term ‘dark’. The problem with sending machines to the dark side is that it is so far away that it becomes extremely difficult to communicate with the robots. 

    China has overcome this problem by sending a satellite named Queqiao, which communicates with the rover and relays information to and from the rover back to earth. China has sent a rover along with a lander as part of Chang’e-4 mission. The robotic lander and rover is called Yutu-2. The rover and lander was launched 7 December 2018 and entered orbit around the Moon on 12 December 2018. It landed at 10:26AM Thursday, Beijing time. 

    Mission Objectives

    The photos that it has sent shows a barren, desert-like surface with craters. The mission of the rover and lander, apart from documenting the area, also involves scientific research as well.  It will be studying the geophysics of the landing zone, researching solar bursts, gather radiation dosimetry for future human exploration of the Moon among other important things. However, the most important payload it carries is a 3 kg sealed “biosphere” with seeds and insect eggs to test whether plants and insects could hatch and grow. If successful, this might mean that there is a bright future for humankind’s survival on this barren satellite. 

  • Xiaomi To Launch 48 Megapixel Camera Smartphone This Month

    Xiaomi To Launch 48 Megapixel Camera Smartphone This Month

    Xiaomi has always been secretive about their phones but are known to tease their customers with snippets. Last month, a top executive from Xiaomi posted a photo of a teaser for a phone that showed the back of the phone and the camera partially. The text under the camera said “48 MP Camera”. The executive also said that the phone would be launched in January of 2019. 

    What We Know So Far?

    Recently, a new poster has surfaced with the words “Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen” . Another poster hints at the Redmi Pro 2 being launched. Connecting the dots, it seems like the Redmi Pro 2 will be launched at the event. If it is indeed the Redmi Pro 2, it will be the first phone in the world to have a camera with as high a resolution as 48 Megapixel.

    The Nokia Lumia 1020 was one of the highest megapixel cameras launched with a 41 MP back camera. The phone image shared by the Xiaomi executive suggests it to have a vertical camera setup with a flash. We also suspect that the phone will have higher storage capacities, specially since higher megapixel cameras shoot images that are considerably large in size. Our guess would be at least 256 GB of storage along with complimentary Mi Cloud storage. 

    Also Read: The Xiaomi Redmi Pro 2 Will Have A 48 MP Rear Camera

    Speculations are rife that the phone will sport a Sony IMX586 48-megapixel sensor or Samsung’s ISOCELL Bright GM1 48-megapixel sensor. What was initially thought to be the Xiaomi Mi 9 might just be the Redmi Pro 2. Given that the first Redmi Pro was launched way back in July of 2016, a new Redmi pro was long overdue! In fact the event isn’t far away at all. It has been organised for tomorrow and we are all hopeful that Xiaomi will start off the year with a bang!

  • Samsung Galaxy A50 And Galaxy Fold To Launch In India

    Samsung Galaxy A50 And Galaxy Fold To Launch In India

    Samsung has reshuffled their entire phone lineup and now have built different lineups for different target audiences. The latest news from a Dutch blog, suggests that Samsung now might launch the Galaxy A50 and Galaxy Fold in India. The Galaxy Fold is a foldable smartphone that Samsung wishes to launch in India as well. India is one of the biggest and most promising smartphone markets in the world and Samsung has a huge fan base here. With the launch of the two mid-range smartphones Samsung can solidify it’s hold in the Indian market even more. With competitors like Poco F1 and Xiaomi’s Mi lineup, the road hasn’t been all flowery for Samsung. 

    Galaxy A50

    If rumours are anything to go by, then the Galaxy A50 will sport a massive 4000 mAh battery and have a 24MP camera. It will also have an in-display fingerprint scanner. The phone is rumoured to be powered by an Exynos 9610 chipset and 4GB of RAM. It will have two variants which have 64GB and 128GB of storage. It will feature Android Pie out of the box and will most likely feature one of the company’s new Infinity displays.

    Galaxy F ( Fold )

    The Galaxy Fold on the other hand will also reportedly be launched in India. Samsung has apparently registered the Galaxy Fold trademark in Turkey. Very little is known of the phone as of now but previous reports suggest that it will be priced between $1,500 and $2,000 when it launches. It will also be launched in European countries as well. If the price is indeed that high, it will definitely have top notch specifications apart from having a unique folding screen. 

    Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A50 Will Feature A 4,000 mAh Battery And 24 MP Main Camera

    The Galaxy A50 is rumoured to be priced around Rs 15000 which will be a great competitor to the Mi Note series as well as Nokia 6.1 Plus apart from targeting Moto, Oppo and Vivo customers. 

  • How Do Netflix And Other Streaming Services Earn Money

    How Do Netflix And Other Streaming Services Earn Money

    Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video are always at loggerheads as the streaming giants fight it out to get the most number of subscribers, the best shows and the most eyeballs. Some of the biggest shows from all across the world are either on Netflix or Prime Video. These services disrupted many industries – CD/DVD renting, music and even the film industry itself – giving viewers the opportunity to watch the best movies and tv shows from the comfort of your home.

    So, how did they do it? How did they take over the experience of going to Movie theatres and watching movies on a big screen with a bucket of popcorn shared between the group of people.

    What Is A Streaming Service?

    A streaming service is a website that allows you to view content online for a fixed charge. This can be on a monthly, yearly or even a per show price. These streaming companies sign contracts with different production houses to get exclusive access to content. This allows for a viewer to get a unified content experience vs browsing the internet for different types of content. It also aims at stopping piracy which was prevalent before companies like Netflix showed up. In other words, “What Apple did with Apple Music, Netflix has done with movies and TV shows” which refers to the stopping of piracy in the entertainment business. 

    The World Before Streaming Services

    Viewers like you and I have grown up watching movies at the cinema. Once the movie had run its natural course in these cinema theatres, the work on DVDs would begin. This was approximately five months post the movie release. If someone missed the movie during initial release , they would wait about six months for the movie to hit DVD production. Some preferred to wait for months more to watch the movie when it was eventually broadcast on television. Some even rented movies from places like Blockbuster(R.I.P.) or, in India, local renting stores. 

    Change In Business

    Content production companies, traditionally, have had a business model that likes to control distribution. They wait for as long as they can before releasing a new format. For example, when they release a movie they wait till the vast majority of people who were willing to watch a movie at the cinema has watched it. Then they release other formats one by one. In the earlier days, they used to have different formats released one by one, which included DVD, CD, VCR, PPV and BlueRay. TV broadcasts were usually saved for last as it was reserved for people who wanted to see the movie, but were not willing to pay for it. So the production companies earned from TV sales and ad revenues.

    But things have changed now and many production and distribution companies understand the importance of giving viewers options . The number of movie releases have also increased tenfold and a viewer does not wait for six months to watch a movie. Piracy has also been a concern with camera quality improving drastically, pirated versions of a movie have become very good in quality. The production companies were losing money in trying to control distribution. That is where streaming services came in. 

    Streaming Services Revenue

    Many viewers think that Netflix is being paid by the production companies to list their movies. But in actuality it is the other way around. Netflix pays producers of movies to have content on their website for a set period of time. Once the time has expired, they choose to take it down or if the viewer count is more then they can extend the period by paying more.

    In fact, Netflix’s entire cash flow comes from subscriptions. They have different plans for different countries which has options based on the number of screens. If you are subscribing for more than one screen so that two people from your friends or family can watch simultaneously. Amazon Prime which also earns from subscriptions as well but they have a one person one account policy and everyone has to subscribe to Prime separately.

    Originals

    Even though Netflix earns a lot from the subscription, they spend a lot more in advertising, marketing and overhead as well as operating cost. They also invest a lot on what they call Netflix Originals which are movies and TV shows produced by Netflix themselves. Prime Video have also heavily invested in originals but Netflix has had more hit titles like Stranger Things, Brahman Naman, Narcos, Little Things and so on. The new Black Mirror Bandersnatch and a movie called Bird Box saw rave reviews. 

    Also read: Top Crime Dramas To Watch On Netflix This Weekend

    In a developing country like India with immense growth potential , streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video are producing Indian content and focussing on the Indian market by reducing subscription prices. The competition has just begun in India and it will be interesting to see if other players like Hulu see India as a possible expansion strategy in future. Till then, get your blankets and popcorn out, sit back, relax and stream. 

  • Huawei To Launch A Red Mate 20 Pro

    Huawei To Launch A Red Mate 20 Pro

    Huawei had announced their flagship phone – the Mate 20 Pro in October of last year. Priced at Rs 69,990, the phone was quite well received. Now, Huawei is set to launch a Red coloured Mate 20 Pro. The news broke on a Chinese networking website with a poster of the Mate 20 Pro being published along with Chinese text written on it. 

    The Huawei Mate 20 Pro features a 6.39 inches AMOLED capacitive touchscreen which has a resolution of 1440 x 3120 pixels and the screen ratio is 19.5:9. The screen also has extra protection as it is made of Corning Gorilla Glass. The Mate 20 Pro features a HiSilicon Kirin 980 processor and has a 3 camera setup at the back. The three cameras are 40 MP f/1.8,20 MP f/2.2 and 8 MP f/2.4. It also boasts of a 24 MP selfie camera. The phone also shoots videos at 2160p at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps and 1080pat 30fps. It can shoot slow motion videos at 720p at 960fps. 

    The Red Mate 20 Pro will be the sixth colour to be added to the series after Emerald Green, Midnight Blue, Twilight, Pink Gold and Black. Huawei recently sold 5 million units of the Mate 20 Pro within two months of the launch and at the same time it celebrated the selling of 200 million smartphones in 2018. The 200 million figure was largely due to the Nova 3 series which was popular with the younger generation and the Mate 20 Pro series that was popular among the working and business consumers. The Red version is expected to be launched before the Chinese New Year which is on February 5, 2019. 

    You can watch our unboxing video here: 

     

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